Santa Monica Pier Nian
by bukibuki
Summary: One-shot about the day Nina and Ian spent in Santa Monica, California. Based on the pictures and Ian's tweet. June 2012


Nina had been in Los Angeles for quite some time now. She loved to spent her vacation at home in Venice. It was perfect. Staying at the beach all day long, hanging out with friends... The only thing missing was her boyfriend. They hadn't gone out in public yet, saying that they were dating and stuff, but since the beginning of the year they had been going out a lot in public. They didn't really want to have everyone knowing about their relationship because of all the rumors that would start if they said the three simple words _'We are dating'_.

However, staying in the apartment was leaving them bored and even if the dates were perfect, the qualities of them were going down a bit. She wished she could walk down the streets holding his hand every time they were together, go to dinner dates without having everyone staring at them and getting into their privacy. Every time they tried to go out, there were many flashes from paparazzi's cameras on their faces and people asking for autographs that the excitement of the date flushed away.

It was a Wednesday night in California and Nina had been lying on the couch with a giant cup of hot chocolate for over an hour, watching a silly romantic movie on the TV. It was summer but the nights were a little cooler. She loved to stay on the couch under the blankets with a hot drink. But what she really wanted at that moment was her _not so secret_ boyfriend. Ian had been in Europe for many Vampire Diaries Conventions and he was busy every weekend, not having too much time to stay with her. He had done a lot for her, though. Ian took her to an amazing time in Paris, where they had so much fun, but he had so much work to do that she would just have to stay in her hotel room bored, waiting for him to come back at night.

So, she went back to Los Angeles, where she could have fun with friends. Ian was an amazing boyfriend and he called her every night wanting to know how she was and how her day had been. It was really great for both of them to spent all that time on the phone talking to each other. He used to call her during the morning, before he had to go work, so he could talk to her before she goes to sleep since it was night in California.

She couldn't say she was entirely happy because she had been waiting for Ian to call, but he didn't. Her cell phone was in front of her on the coffee table, and every two minutes she pressed its button to see if there was a missing call from him, she might have someway missed it.

Nina ended up falling asleep right on the couch, and the TV stayed tuned on. She woke up feeling soft warm hands caressing her face. She moaned not wanting to wake up but when she opened her eyes and noticed who was standing right in front of her, she stood up and hugged him.

"I cannot believe you're here!" She hugged him tight.

"I had a couple days free and thought 'Why not go see my girl?'" Ian smiled caressing her face.

"You flew all the day from Italy just to spend a couple days with me?" Her eyes glittered.

"Yeah, I did." He laughed. "I've missed you, honey. We haven't seen each other for ages. I was going to call you and tell I was coming but I wanted to see your face when you saw me here, as a surprise. And believe me, your face was worth it."

"I must be looking like hell, right now." She buried her face on his shoulder. "I am wearing no make-up and I just woke up after waiting hours for your daily call."

"You look beautiful," Ian touched her chin. "Come here," He pulled her closer and kissed her.

As the kiss was getting more and more passionate, Ian started leaning on her top, making her lean on the couch.

"How was your day?" He broke the kiss but didn't leave her top.

"You know, it's way better when you ask me that in person… Phones are not _that_ great if you ask me." She laughed.

"You didn't seem to have disliked our last phone call."

"We've been apart for weeks, as you just said. And you're voice was so soft…"

"I turned you on, Nina, just admit it."

"You did, but you know we went a little further than just being turned on."

"Phone sex is such a great thing, right?" He whispered against her ear and she nodded.

"And how was _your_ day?" She stood up and sat on the couch. "You must be really jet-lagged."

"Well, I really am… My day was okay." He said indifferent.

"Let's go to bed, honey. It's late… You should get some sleep so we can have fun tomorrow."

"What do you think about going to Santa Monica tomorrow?" He asked holding her hand and leading her upstairs to her bedroom. "The pier is such a beautiful place… And it's also so romantic."

"I like it," She smiled. "You taking me to a carnival date, a little cliché, don't you think?" Nina laughed joking and he pouted. "I love clichés, you silly!" She ran away from him in her bedroom's direction and entered it.

Ian ran right after her and when he caught her, they both fell on her bed laughing. Ian turned them on the bed, staying on her top and sat on his knees. She looked in the bottom of his light blue eyes waiting for his next move but he took her in a surprise and started tickling her.

She couldn't leave there or even move, and he was tickling her so bad that she was laughing so much that tears started rolling down her eyes.

"Ian stop!" She yelled laughing.

He didn't want to but Nina was already red of all the laughing and tears of happiness, so he decided to stop.

"What did I do to deserve so much cruelty?"

"Nothing, I just decided to enjoy the fact that we fall on the bed together… I wasn't planning any of this."

"You idiot," She played walking to the bathroom.

Nina was at the sink and she had just finished brushing her teeth when she felt Ian's arms around her waist.

"You love me,"

"Yeah I do," She turned to look at him and placed a kiss on his lips. "C'mon, let's sleep. Tomorrow will be a good day." She smiled.

Nina woke up around 9 o'clock in the morning and Ian was still asleep. He had been in a long flight and the night before she could see how jet-lagged he was just by looking at him, so she decided not to wake him up. She took her laptop, which was on her desk, and tip toed out of the room. She looked at how cute he looked sleeping and as the blankets were on the high of his waist, his naked six-pack was showing.

She sat at the kitchen balcony with a cup of coffee and turned her laptop on. She checked her email to see if she had received something from Julie or Kevin, talking about the fourth season of the show. June was ending and soon they would all have to go back to Atlanta to start shooting. But there was no email from them. After closing all the tabs, she kept gazing her desktop background picture. The picture was taken during one of their first dates but it was such a beautiful picture that she had it practically everywhere. They weren't kissing or doing any valentine's stuff, it was just a picture of them gazing each other with their hands interlaced on the height of their waists.

She opened the folder called "_My Everything_" and many pictures of her and Ian started appearing. It had all the pictures they had taken in Paris the year before. Ian loved to take pictures of Nina and everywhere they went, he made sure he had a picture of her. During their trip to Paris, he made her stop in the middle of the street just so he could take a picture of her. While they were walking down the streets of the romantic and beautiful Paris, they took many pictures of each other on Ian's camera and Nina had every single one of them on her computer so she could look and gaze them how much she wanted.

Scrolling down a bit, she found the one he had taken in Monte Carlo, two year before. She was laid on something like a guardrail with the beautiful ocean as a background. Then, there were many other pictures of them together during conventions, comic cons and parties. He hardly-ever had his camera but he couldn't miss anything so, as he always had his cell phone, he was always taking pictures of her.

One picture that she really loved – it could even be considered as one of her favorites – was the one Ian had taken right after they arrived the _Elton John's Annual AIDS Foundation Oscars Party 2012_. Nina couldn't help but smile at all those beautiful pictures she had with Ian. She loved that man more than anything in the world, and all those memories coming back to her mind by looking at those picture only made her feelings for him mounts.

After spending one whole hour just looking at their pictures, Nina realized how badly she missed her boyfriend. They had been together all night long, the night before, but they had been apart for so long…

Nina went back to the room and he was still sleeping. What a lazy man, she thought laughing. She walked to the bathroom and turned on the shower. She took off her clothes, arranged her hair on a bun and entered the shower. Nina let the water fall on her back while she passed the soap on her body and had her eyes closed to relax.

"Have I ever told you how beautiful you look?" Ian asked.

Nina jumped of fright and had to hold on the walls not to fall after slipping on the wet floor. Her hand was on her heart, which was beating fast. She just looked at him through the glass and he was at the door, incumbent on the wall, wearing just pajamas' pants – no t-shirt- and had a playful smile on his face.

"If you're trying to become a widower, you should kill me in a different way and preferably, when I'm not in the shower."

"I'm sorry…" He couldn't stop laughing.

"Yesterday you tickled me and just stopped because I was almost dying, and today you scare me like hell while I'm in the shower. What are you planning to do in Santa Monica? Throw me out of the Ferris-wheel or the rollercoaster, right on the sea?"

"I already said I'm sorry, okay?"

"Stop laughing then," She said serious. "Wait for me outside. I'll be done in a minute."

"Alright," He said and went back to the room crestfallen.

Nina left the shower and dressed in jeans and a simple black t-shirt. She looked at the mirror and realized that her hair wasn't _that_ great, so she just adjusted her bun so it would be good for her to go out.

"I missed you, honey…" Nina said sitting in front of Ian, who was sitting on the bed reading a magazine.

"I missed you too, Nina. What do you wanna do today?"

"What about we go to brunch?" She proposed. "Then we can go to Santa Monica…"

"That's great, sweetheart. What were you doing while I was asleep? I woke up and I was alone in bed, you're not here to keep me company so I went back to sleep."

"I was at the kitchen drinking some coffee and looking through some pictures on my computer. We have so many pictures of us together and they just made me miss you more…"

"You will have your boyfriend all day long, Nina. This feeling will be gone, you will see."

After they both were ready to leave, they went to the garage to take the car but Nina wasn't in the mood to drive so she threw her car keys to Ian.

"You drive," She smiled.

He drove to the best restaurant to have brunch in Los Angeles. It was a very romantic restaurant and they were praying nobody would take pictures of them.

"A table for two, please," Ian asked.

"Do you have a reservation, sir?" The man looked at the reservations list in front of him.

"No, I don't… But I've come here for years and a reservation shouldn't be needed."

"Well, it isn't, but we don't have any tables right now. It's half past twelve, sir. This is the time we are completely full." He explained. "You can wait for a table, but I don't think I will have a free table anytime soon."

"It's okay Ian…" Nina said noticing he was getting stressed with the man. "Let's go somewhere else…"

"Do you have a table, now?" Ian asked slipping two bills of one hundred dollars on the balcony.

"Bob?" He called one of the waiters. "A table for two, please."

"Follow me, please." The man called Bob asked them and they walked right after him.

"You are crazy." Nina laughed holding his hand above the table. The man had prepared a table for them in a private place at the restaurant and they were already sat down.

"You know I would do anything to you… After what happened this morning while you were in the shower, I thought I should make it up to you."

Nina and Ian had a really nice and romantic brunch and they left the restaurant in the middle of the afternoon. They walked down the Santa Monica beach hand in hand, barely talking, just enjoying spending time with each other.

"Can we go to the pier?" She asked like a kid.

"You're so cute," He pressed her cheeks. "But yes we can," Ian smiled.

The line to buy the tickets was somewhat long and as he had done at the restaurant he was about to pass in front of all the people even knowing that wasn't polite.

"Honey, you're a great man... Don't do something that disrespectful... We want to be treated like normal people, right?" Nina wrapped her arms around his neck and looked into his bright blue eyes. "We will wait in the line like normal people. It doesn't matter if it will take a while. At least we will enter in this theme park as normal people. You're so sweet, Ian. You don't do that kind of thing."

"You're right... I don't. I will just wait in line with my beautiful girlfriend." He kissed her forehead.

It took a while to get to the tickets cabin, and when they finally made it, Ian made sure to pay for both of the tickets.

"Ian, forget about what happened at the restaurant, and the long line... We are together after weeks apart and we can have a romantic good time so don't ruin it. You've been working a lot, I know, you're stressed, but I'm here okay? You've always said I could always make you happy right?"

"You make me happy, Neens. You make me the happiest man in the world. I wished we could have spent way more time together, but there were so many conventions..."

"I don't mind, Ian. You took me to half of the places you had conventions, and I was always bored in the hotel room. I'm happy you came all the way to LA two times this month, just to see me for a couple days... And what makes me even happier is that we were able to keep our relationship even with the distance between us."

"Nothing will ever break us apart, honey. You know that." He pulled her closer and hugged her tight.

They rode on the roller coaster and Nina left the attraction laughing.

"Can we go again?" She begged. "Pretty please?"

"Sure..." Nina knew that if she did everything to Ian, he would be happy and forget about the stress that was all over him.

That roller coaster was so good, and they had so much fun together that she thought going again might be a good idea to make him happy.

Nina wasn't scared of height but she didn't really like all that speed when they were falling practically touching the floor, so she didn't let go of his hand for even a second and pressed it all she could.

"But the way you hold my hand... I think someone was a little scared..." Ian joked playful.

"Maybe," She rolled her eyes smirking. "But I have to get over this fear, right? Someone once told me I should get over every fear I have when I'm with him because I know he will protect me."

"Now you're taking my advices?" He asked unbelievably. "When I tell you not to get drunk at every party you go, you don't even listen to me!"

"This is different,"

"Are you going?" A woman asked them when they were the first ones in line.  
Ian just nodded and pulled Nina inside the small car.

After riding four times in the roller coaster, Nina was already feeling somewhat dizzy and decided to sit down and eat something. She was alone, with her arms on the grid, looking at the sea and the people on the beach.

"It's getting cold..." Ian hugged her from behind holding a latte he had just bought.

"Don't you have a coat or something?"

"Yeah, I do..." She took her grey sweater from her bag and dressed on it. "The sunset is beautiful..."

"I love the sunset here in LA, especially during the summer..."

"I wish we had spent more time together during our vacations..."

"Me too, sweetheart." He kissed the top of her head. "But as soon as we go back to Atlanta, we will have plenty of time to be together."

"I hope so."

"Here," Ian handed her the cup of latte.

"Thanks," She smiled. "Ian, I wanna do something but I don't know if we should..."

"What?" He pulled her closer by her waist with a malicious look in his eyes.

"Hey, no! I'm not perverted like you, Ian!" He couldn't help but laugh. "This sunset is beautiful, we've been having such a great time together... I've been holding myself not to kiss you but this is so hard..."

"You want a kiss?" He was sure she would ask for something more inappropriate because of how she said the sentence.

"Well," She said smiling.

He looked into her eyes for some time and they were just gazing. Nobody had interrupted them during that day, which made her day even better. Ian pulled her to him and placed a kiss on her soft lips. Their eyes were closed and they just enjoyed the moment not minding if someone could take a picture of them.  
She noticed Ian was moving his arm up their heads and broke the kiss.

"What are you doing?" She laughed.

"Taking a picture..."

"Awww," It was all she could say. She couldn't resist and kissed him again.

He took a few pictures and then, they turned to see how the picture was. Nina loved the pictures and smiled at him.

"I want these photos as soon as we get home... It's beautiful. You're a great photographer but take a picture while kissing with your eyes closed is not that easy."

"It's not our first time..."

"I know," She smiled and laid her head on his shoulder. He wrapped his arms around her waist, hugging her. "When are you leaving Ian?"

"I have to be in Birmingham on Friday morning... The flight leaves tomorrow afternoon."

"You could not go."

"You know how crazy I am about you. I will be back here on Wednesday. One week will not be that hard."

"Alright... Can we go to the Ferris-wheel?"

"Of course... But we should go after that. I was wondering if you would like me to cook for you."

"It's impossible to say no to your food. So, we leave right after the Ferris wheel. I just hope there is food at home..."

The line was really short and they got into the Ferris-wheel cabin right away. Nina laid with her back on his chest and her head on his shoulder. Their hands were interlaced above her legs and they couldn't ask for more.

They had had so much fun that day in the pier and the weather just let it even more romantic. The sunset was beautiful and they weren't talking, just gazing the sea colored by the orange sky. But the most important thing, they were together. He has hers and she was his. And nothing would change that. The distance between them was only able to increase their love for each other even more.

They couldn't wait to get to Atlanta and have each other every day.

**REVIEW IT PLEASE!**


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